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NASA Astronauts Receive Award for Oxygen Mask Invention

Written by thomas · Filed Under Aeronautics News 

October 1, 2008

thomas

HOUSTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA announced today that
astronauts Mark E. Kelly and Donald R. Pettit are the Federal Laboratory
Consortium 2008 Notable Technology Award recipients for their work
inventing an oxygen partial pressure sensor.

Kelly and Pettit’s invention works by warning crew members when the
partial pressure of oxygen in their oxygen masks decreases below a pre-set
level. An electrochemical sensor provides an electrochemical monitor and
tactile warning to the user to prevent hypoxia, which is insufficient
oxygen levels the bloodstream.

The two were awarded a U.S. patent for the method and device in 2006, a
Tech Brief award in 2003 and an Inventions and Contributions Board Space
Act Award in 2007.

Kelly, an experienced naval aviator before joining the NASA astronaut
corps, has logged 38 days in space as a space shuttle pilot and commander.
He has logged more than 5,000 flight hours in more than 50 different
aircrafts and has more than 375 carrier landings.

Pettit flew aboard STS-113 on space shuttle Endeavour and spent five
and a half months as the science officer for Expedition 6 on the
International Space Station, returning on the Soyuz TMA-1. While on board,
he conducted science experiments and logged more than 13 hours performing
spacewalks outside the complex.

For more information on NASA spinoffs and technology, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/index.html.

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SOURCE NASA

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